ptg6935296

Matt Kloskowski
Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections & Amazing
Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites
Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections & Amazing
Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites
$49.99 USA $51.99 CAN
Peachpit Press
www.peachpit.com
www.kelbytraining.com
USER LEVEL: Beginner/Intermediate
CATEGORY: Photography, Digital Photography,
Photo Techniques, Visual Arts
Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections & Amazing
Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites
Compositing is one of the hottest trends in Photoshop and photography
today for portrait photographers, designers of all walks of life, and even
retouchers. Everywhere you look, from group photos, to senior and sports
portraits, to magazines, movie posters, and DVD covers, chances are, you’ve
seen compositing.
In Photoshop Compositing Secrets, Matt Kloskowski takes you through the
entire process behind creating convincing, well-executed, and captivating
composites. You’ll see how to create images that run the gamut from real-
world portraits for corporate, graduation, or group photos to
sports portraits, templates, and collages, and even the surreal,
dramatic composites that clients clamor for.
You’ll learn:
• Oneofthemostimportantsecretstocompositing:how
to master selections in Photoshop (yes, even wispy hair)
• Whatcamerasetups,lightingsetups,andbackground
color work best for compositing
• Howtomoveasubjectfromonebackgroundtoanother,
and the Photoshop lighting and shadowing techniques to
make it look real
• AndallthePhotoshoptips,tricks,andspecialefectsyou
needtopullofaconvincing,professionalcomposite
Whetheryou’reaprofessional,anaspiringprofessional,orahobbyist,
Photoshop Compositing Secrets will sharpen your skills and open up a whole
new avenue of photographic expression in an easy-to-understand way that
will have you creating your own composites in no time.
Matt Kloskowski
is the Education and
Curriculum Developer
fortheNationalAsso-
ciation of Photoshop
Professionals.Hehas
published numerous
bestselling books on Photoshop and is the
author of the Lightroom Killer Tips blog. In
additiontobeinganAdobeCertifedExpertin
Photoshop and an accomplished photographer,
Matt is a regular contributor to Photoshop User
magazine,aspeakeratthePhotoshopWorld
Conference & Expo, and the co-host of two
popular videocasts, Photoshop User TV and
The Grid.
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Chapter 9 Multi-Exposure Action Photo
STEP ONE:
Okay, let’s go over what you’ll need
to make this type of shot happen. For
starters, you need a moving subject.
It doesn’t have to be skiing or snow-
boarding, by the way. A lot of sports
work—basketball, football, baseball,
soccer, motorcross, you name it. Track
and field would be awesome, too, by
the way. It helps a lot if there’s an
interesting background or setting, but
sometimes the motion of the actual
sport can carry the composite by itself.
In this example, we’ll use a snow-
boarder flying through the air.
STEP TWO:
A tripod helps with these multiple-
action shots, because it helps steady
the overall framing of the photo. So,
the scenery behind the subject will
stay the same for every shot and only
the athlete will be moving, making our
Photoshop work really easy. Next, set
your camera to Aperture Priority mode
and do a quick test shot. Then, remem-
ber what aperture you used and make
a note of the shutter speed the camera
chose. Say you’re set to f/8 and the
camera chooses 1/500 of a second.
Switch to Manual mode and dial in f/8
and 1/500. This way, the camera won’t
accidentally meter off the wrong area
and choose a different exposure as
you fire off multiple frames.
THE SETUP
The setup for this type of shoot is really simple. In fact, if you set it up the right way, you’ll make your post-processing in Photoshop
really simple, too. I do want to take a quick moment to thank my good friend and very talented adventure photographer, Tom Bol
(www.tombolphoto.com). Tom was kind enough to let me use his photos for this chapter. Why? Because I live in Florida and the
closest I get to snow is when I open my freezer to get ice. But Tom lives for this stuff. In fact, if it’s not below 20 degrees, Tom’s out
shooting in shorts and a t-shirt, because that’s like summer weather to him (he’s from Alaska). Thanks Tom!
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Chapter 9 Multi-Exposure Action Photo
STEP THREE:
Now, you need to turn your camera
to Continuous or Burst mode. It’s
going to differ for each camera, but
you basically want the camera to
take photos as fast as it can. Also,
the FPS (frames per second) your
camera will shoot will vary. Some
entry level DSLRs shoot 4 fps and
some of the pro models will shoot
9 or 10 fps. The main difference that
FPS makes for this type of photo is
the distance between each photo of
the subject. The lower the FPS, the
more space between each photo.
The higher the FPS, the closer they’ll
be. Sometimes, they’ll even overlap
if the subject isn’t moving really fast.
Here’s an example of what the spac-
ing may look like using a camera
with a lower FPS vs. one that has
a higher FPS.
Lower FPS
Higher FPS
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STEP FOUR:
Here’s a setup shot taken during
one of the series of photos while
Tom was out shooting. It’s of a skier,
but the concept was the same for
the snowboarder. You can see that
Tom has his camera locked down on
a tripod as the skier flies through
the air.
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Chapter 10 Movie Poster
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STEP ONE:
First, open the two photos we’ll
need for the background—we’ll
need the castle and we’ll need the
clouds to put behind it. By the way,
I already resized the castle photo to
the dimensions needed for a movie
poster. Just in case you’re wonder-
ing, most posters are generally
27x40". Now that’s huge for what
we’re creating here, so I’ve sized it
down a bit. But, the actual aspect
ratio here is still 27x40.
STEP TWO:
Grab the Quick Selection tool from
the Toolbox (or just press W) and
make a very quick selection of the
castle image’s sky. Then, click on the
Refine Edge button in the Options Bar.
When the Refine Edge dialog opens,
turn on the Smart Radius checkbox
and set the Radius to around 40 pix-
els, so we pick up any little details on
the castle. From the Output To pop-up
menu, choose Selection and click OK.
PREPPING THE BACKGROUND
The background is nowhere near as dramatic as we need yet. Movie posters like this always have something dark and stormy as
the background setting. If you haven’t realized it yet, I love dramatic clouds, so we’ll definitely add some of those. Then we need to
darken it (we have a couple of tricks to do this), so everything looks a little more ominous. Let’s get started.
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Chapter 10 Movie Poster
STEP THREE:
Switch over to the cloud photo,
go to Select>All to select the entire
photo, and then go to Edit>Copy
to copy it. Switch back over to the
castle photo (where you already
have a selection active) and choose
Edit>Paste Special>Paste Into.
This pastes the clouds into the
sky, but automatically creates a
layer mask, so the rest of the
cloud photo is hidden.
STEP FOUR:
Now, we need to grunge it all up
to get a more dramatic look. It’s
a movie poster, after all, and they
usually have a very dramatic feel
to them. I’m going to show you a
way to do it in Photoshop first, but
then I’ll show you what I think is a
much better way. Photoshop’s HDR
Toning adjustment is a good way
to get an instant grunge look, so go
to Image>Adjustments>HDR Toning.
Photoshop will ask if it’s okay to
flatten your document, so just click
Yes to continue.
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Chapter 10 Movie Poster
STEP FIVE:
When the HDR Toning dialog
opens, enter settings similar
to what I have here. By really
cranking up the Radius, Strength,
and Detail settings, you’ll get a
very detailed and dramatic look.
Click OK when you’re done.
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STEP SIX:
The HDR Toning adjustment looks
pretty good for creating that dra-
matic look. But if you want to step
it up a notch and want to learn the
real secret, it’s from a plug-in called
Topaz Adjust. First, though, you’ll
need to undo the HDR toning (press
Command-Z [PC: Ctrl-Z]). Then, cre-
ate a new merged layer to apply
the filter to by pressing Command-
Option-Shift-E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E)
to create a new merged layer at the
top of the layer stack. If you’ve in-
stalled the plug-in (you can find it
at www.topazlabs.com/adjust, and
they do have a free trial), you’ll find
it under Filter>Topaz Labs>Topaz
Adjust. When you open the plug-in
window, you’ll see a bunch of pre-
sets along the left side. I use the
Dark – Night preset all the time. It’s
a great way to take a daytime photo
and turn it into night with just one
click. And it gives a much better
result than anything I’ve seen in
Photoshop. I’ve also included the
completed background image at
this point, so even if you don’t have
the plug-in, you can still follow along
with the same photo I’m using.
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Chapter 10 Movie Poster
STEP ONE:
Open the samurai photo. It’s a RAW
photo, so it’ll open in the Camera
Raw window. First things first, click
the Rotate Image 90° Counter Clock-
wise button in the top toolbar (or just
press the L key) to rotate the photo.

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Chapter 13 Single-Photo Composite
STEP THREE:
Open the photo of the football
player now. Press W to get the
Quick Selection tool and make
a selection of the football player.
The busier the background, the
more important it is to get a good
se lection here. So, zoom in on
his helmet and his hand carrying
the ball, and make sure you have
everything selected. Press-and-
hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and
paint to remove anything you don’t
want included in the selection.
STEP FOUR:
Press the Refine Edge button up
in the Options Bar. If you spent the
time to create a good selection in
the previous step, then there’s not
much to do here. We don’t have
any hair or many tiny details, so the
Refine Radius tool won’t help much.
Just set the Radius to 5 pixels and
everything should be looking pretty
good, then choose Layer Mask from
the Output To pop-up menu, and
click OK.
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STEP FIVE:
Press V to get the Move tool
and then click-and-drag the foot-
ball player onto the background
image. You’ll see the entire layer,
with the layer mask, show up in
the background image now. The
photo is too large for the back-
ground, though, so go to Edit>
Free Transform. But, because
it’s so much larger than the image
area, you won’t see the Free Trans-
form handles, so press Command-0
(zero; PC: Ctrl-0) to automatically
resize the window, so you can reach
the handles. Then, press-and-hold
the Shift key, and just click on a
corner handle and drag inward to
re size the photo. I dragged until the
width and height settings in the
Options Bar were about 80%. Press
Return (PC: Enter) when you’re
done to lock in the transformation,
and then position the player in the
center of the background.
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STEP SIX:
Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J)
to duplicate the football player
layer. We want to make the bottom
copy really large and fade it into
the background, so click on it in the
Layers panel to target it, and then
go to Edit>Free Transform, again.
It’s going to be hard to use the
trans form handles to enlarge this
as much as we want. So, instead,
click on the Maintain Aspect Ratio
icon in the Options Bar (the little
chain link icon in between the width
and height fields), then enter 200%
for the width and the height will
automatically change, too. Move
the photo over to the left a little and
press Return when you’re done.
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STEP SEVEN:
The larger photo in the background
is supposed to play less of a role in
this image, so we need to fade it.
Try changing the blend mode of the
layer to Soft Light, and now the
photo fades into the background
and even picks up some of the
background texture. That said,
Soft Light worked in this example,
but it’s not always going to be the
one. Sometimes Overlay will work.
Give Multiply, Screen, and Hard
Light a try, too. It really depends
on the brightness and color of
the original background.
STEP EIGHT:
I think the football player is faded a
little too much into the background,
so we’re losing too much detail.
Just press Command-J to duplicate
the layer and you’ll instantly see the
photo better. But, now it’s too color-
ful. Remember, it’s not supposed to
draw a lot of attention. So, first, go
to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate
to remove the color. That gives it
more of a muted look. Then reduce
the Opacity of the layer (30%–40%
works well here).
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STEP NINE:
Click on the Create New Adjust-
ment Layer icon at the bottom of
the Layers panel again, and add
another Hue/Saturation adjust-
ment layer. In the Adjustments
panel, set the Saturation to –30
and the Lightness to 40, then go
to Layer>Create Clipping Mask to
force the adjustment to only affect
the layer right below it. This tones
down the background image just a
little more, but more importantly,
it gives us a lot of options. The way
your photo looks may be way dif-
ferent than mine, depending on the
background and athlete you used.
This adjustment lets us really refine
the way the background copy ap-
pears, because you can add more
or less color and brighten or darken
it with just a couple of sliders.
STEP 10:
Now for a couple of finishing
touches: First, we need some
text, so click on the top layer in
the layer stack, then press T to
get the Horizontal Type tool from
the Toolbox. Press D, then X to
set your Foreground color to white.
Type the player’s name and num-
ber in the lower-left corner. I used
Futura Bold here, at around 118
points, but any bold font (maybe
even Arial Black) will work. Also,
as you can see, because of the way
the player is running, the text fits
better in the bottom-left corner.
You may need to reposition it if
your subject looks different.
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STEP 11:
Next, click on the Add a Layer Style
icon at the bottom of the Layers
panel, select Drop Shadow, and
add a very slight drop shadow to
help lift the text from the back-
ground. I set the Angle to 135°,
the Distance to 11, and the Size
to 0 (to make the edge more crisp).
Click OK when you’re done, and
then lower the Opacity of the Type
layer a bit.
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STEP 12:
Finally, let’s darken the edges of the
composite a little. Press Command-
Option-Shift-E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E)
to merge all of the layers together
into one new layer at the top of the
Layers panel. Get the Burn tool
from the Toolbox (or just press
Shift-O until you have it) and, in
the Options Bar, set the Range to
Midtones and the Exposure to 15%.
Then, using a large, soft-edged
brush, paint around the edges of
the image to burn them in. Edge
vignetting is always a nice finishing
effect and really helps draw atten-
tion into the middle of the image.
By using a brush, you can control
exactly what you paint over to
darken. For example, you don’t
want to paint over the football
player’s head at the top center.
Okay, so that wraps up the sports
composite, but check out the next
two tutorials for some optional
ideas to change it up a little.
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STEP ONE:
Click on the smaller version of the
player layer to target it and then
click on the Add a Layer Style icon
at the bottom of the Layers panel
and choose Outer Glow. You can
go two ways with this: First, you
can leave the default color set to
yellow and just increase the Size
setting to around 25 and reduce
the Opacity to 50%–60%.
SINGLE-PHOTO COMPOSITE OPTIONAL TRICK #1
The first option is to put a glow around the smaller version of the football player. This is an old compositing trick to help hide
any stray edges or fringes around the subject. I think our selection went really well, so we don’t have that problem, but it’s still
a great way to add some depth to the image.
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STEP TWO:
Or, you can click on the color
swatch and change the color from
yellow to black, change the Blend
Mode to Multiply, increase the Size,
and decrease the Opacity. This puts
a dark shadowy outline behind him.
I kinda like the dark one better here,
but both will work, depending on
the background. For a darker back-
ground, I’d go with the brighter glow.
For a brighter background like this
one, I’d stick with something darker.
STEP THREE:
If you zoom in, though, you’ll see
there is a bright fringe around the
football player that we didn’t see
earlier, because he’s on a brighter
colored background. But when you
put the dark outer glow around
him, it stands out a little more. I
showed you how to get rid of this
in Chapter 1. First, we need to copy
him from the layer with the layer
mask, so Command-click (PC: Ctrl-
click) on the layer mask to put a
selection around him. Then, click
on the layer’s image thumbnail to
target it and press Command-J
(PC: Ctrl-J) to copy the selected
area (the football player) onto his
own layer.
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STEP FOUR:
Click on the little Eye icon to the
left of the original layer with the
layer mask to hide it. Then go to
Layer>Matting>Defringe, enter
1 pixel, and click OK to remove
the bright fringe. Then Option-
click (PC: Alt-click) on the Outer
Glow layer style icon on the hid-
den layer below and drag it onto
the newly defringed layer of the
football player.
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STEP ONE:
Open the hexagon pattern image.
You’ll see the pattern is on its own
layer, so using the Move tool (V),
drag it into the composite and
position it in between the top copy
of the football player and the Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer that’s
on top of the larger versions of
him for the background.
STEP TWO:
The pattern is black right now, so let’s
flip it to white, which will work better
here. Press Command- (PC: Ctrl- )
to Invert the layer from black to white.
Then, change the layer’s blend mode
to Overlay to fade the texture into the
background some more.
SINGLE-PHOTO COMPOSITE OPTIONAL TRICK #2
One more optional trick for this type of composite is to add another texture or pattern over the background. Especially when
you selectively include it in just parts of the photo, it’s a really nice way to finish things off.
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STEP THREE:
It also helps to randomize where
the hexagon texture appears, so
it’s not over the entire background.
Click on the Add Layer Mask icon
at the bottom of the Layers panel,
press B to select the Brush tool
from the Toolbox, and then make
sure your Foreground color is set
to black. Use a pretty large, soft-
edged brush to paint the hexagon
texture away from the upper- and
lower-right parts of the photo,
so it only appears over the larger
version of the football player in
the background.
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Chapter 14 One Person, Multiple Poses
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Chapter 14 One Person, Multiple Poses
PHOTOSHOP COMPOSI TI NG SECRETS > 31 1
I was in my office one day, working on this book, and my good friend RC Concepcion
had a photo shoot going on in the studio right down the hall. As fate would have it,
I was in the process of working on some ideas for this very chapter, when I decided
to stop in on his shoot (and procrastinate). RC was shooting a very talented dancer,
Ricky Jaime, and as soon as I walked in, he showed me some photos on his computer.
Wow! This guy was incredible. He seemed to float in the air. As I saw more photos,
I realized they would work perfectly for this chapter, so I asked (okay, begged) RC
to let me use the photos here. Thankfully, he was cool with it. The idea here is that
you’re taking photos of just one person, but you’re compositing them together in
different poses. The final image has a strong impact, and is a perfect way to show
off those times when you have several great photos of someone and you just can’t
decide which one to use.
ONE PERSON, MULTIPLE POSES
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Chapter 14 One Person, Multiple Poses
STEP ONE:
First off, you need a great subject
doing something cool, different, fun,
cute, whatever. But they just can’t be
standing there doing nothing. These
dancer photos are perfect. There’s
lots of movement and they have a
very dynamic look to them. But, it
could just as easily be a martial artist,
a football player, or even a child.
STEP TWO:
In fact, here are a few photos taken
of some children on the same back-
ground. You can see the direction
this is going, with the letters they’re
holding. We’ll talk more about this
one later in the chapter at the end
of the compositing tutorial. I’ll show
you a couple of different ways we
can go with this type of composite.
THE SETUP
I’m all for using Photoshop to help create my composites. So much so, you’re reading an entire book on it, right? But there are times
where thinking ahead and shooting something the right way (while thinking about using Photoshop later) is just as good a compositing
tool as Photoshop itself. This is a perfect example. The setup for this composite makes the Photoshop work nearly non-existent.
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Chapter 14 One Person, Multiple Poses
STEP THREE:
The lighting setup is similar to
some of the other setups in the
book: a beauty dish in front as
the main light, and two strip bank
softboxes with grids on the sides.
Here’s the absolute key, though:
there’s a light pointed at the back-
ground here to turn it white. This
way, we don’t need a new back-
ground for them later in Photoshop.
They’re already on the background
we want. This makes the time you
spend on compositing a fraction of
what you’d spend if you had to place
them on a different background.
STEP FOUR:
Just a quick side note: You don’t
have to shoot everything on white.
The composite could just as easily
have a black background, and it
would work exactly the same.
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STEP FIVE:
Finally, you’ll want to have the
subject stand in the same general
location and you’ll want to stay put,
too. I tend to use a piece of tape on
the ground (circled here). If either
of you move closer or farther away,
you’ll lose the correct height per-
spective. One photo will be larger
than the other depending on which
way you moved. It’s not the end of
the world, though. We always have
Free Transform in Photoshop to re-
size a photo, but again, I’m trying
to save you some time later and
this step is key to doing that.
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CREATING THE COMPOSITE
Once you’ve got the photos, creating the multiple-pose composite is simple. In fact, this will probably be one of the easiest we create
in the book, mainly because we really don’t have to worry about selections, backgrounds, or lighting. All that stuff is already done.
STEP ONE:
In Photoshop, we’ll need to get all
of the images of the dancer into one
document. There’s always the hard
way, which is opening each photo
and dragging them individually into
one image. But Photoshop’s got a
much easier way built in. Go to File>
Scripts>Load Files into Stack. This
opens the Load Layers dialog. Click
on the Browse button and navigate to
the photo series that you’ve captured,
or just follow along by downloading
the ones I’m using here. When you
get to the Open dialog, click on the
topmost photo and then Shift-click
on the bottom one to select them all.
STEP TWO:
When you’ve got all of the photos
selected, click the Open (PC: OK)
button to go back to the Load Layers
dialog. Then, click OK to start stacking
them. When it’s done, you’ll have a
new image open with several layers
in the Layers panel.
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STEP THREE:
Before we go any further, we need to
make room for all of the photos. Go
to Image>Canvas Size and change
the unit of measurement to Pixels.
Since we have five photos, we need
to make the width of the image five
times as wide. So, in this example,
the Current Size Width reads 1000
pixels. Multiply that by 5 and you’ve
got 5000 pixels (I always did well in
math). So, type 5000 pixels in the
New Size Width field, click OK, and
Photoshop automatically adds some
extra background area.
STEP FOUR:
You’ll notice that part of the back-
ground is transparent now. We need
it to be white. Click on the Create a
New Layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers panel to create a new blank
layer. Then, drag the layer so it ap-
pears at the very bottom of the layer
stack. Go to Edit>Fill and change the
Use setting to White. Click OK, and
now you’ll have a white background
for the entire image.
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STEP FIVE:
Now, position each layer the way
you’d like it for the layout. Get the
Move tool (V), click on the layer in
the Layers panel that you want to
move, then click-and-drag it into place.
(Note: Press-and-hold the Shift key
while dragging to move them along
the same horizontal line.) I already
have them in numeric order if you’re
following along, so start with Dancer1,
then Dancer2 next, then Dancer3,
and so on. As long as you don’t put
them too close together or overlap
any photos, you shouldn’t have to
do any masking right now (we’ll talk
more about that in a minute). This is
actually one of the most important
parts, because there is some strategy
to it. First, I always take a look at the
photos and see which one would be
a good focal point. That photo should
go in the middle. The rest of the posi-
tioning kinda becomes an art form.
I played with several different layouts
before I found this combination and
I think it works well, since some of
the angles in the body of one pose
complement the angles of the body
in the pose next to it.
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STEP SIX:
The other thing you’ll want to be
careful of is to make sure the heads
are all on the same level. So, we’ll
use Photo shop’s guide feature. Go
to View>New Guide. Click on the
Horizontal radio button, enter 4
inches as a starting position, and
click OK to create the guide. You’ll
see a cyan-colored horizontal guide
appear across your image. Chances
are it’s not in the right place, though.
With the Move tool still active, posi-
tion your cursor over the guide. Then,
just click-and-drag it so it’s directly
over the head in the middle. Then,
reposition each layer, so all of the
heads appear right below the guide.
TIP: CLEARING THE GUIDES
Once you’re done with the guide,
you can go to the View menu and
choose Clear Guides to get rid of it.
STEP SEVEN:
Okay, you could be done here.
Notice I said “could,” right? All that’s
really left is to crop the extra space
out of the image. So, just grab the
Crop tool (C) and drag the crop-
ping border out over the image to
crop it, as shown here. So, why’d
I say “could” earlier? Well, I think
the layout looks cool, but it’s a
little too plain for me. Each pose is
separate and in its own space, so
to speak. None of them intersect, or
even come close to intersecting, with
each other. When you’re creating
a composite like this, I think it sig-
nificantly improves the final image
to bring them all closer together, and
even have them appear as if they
were in the same frame.
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STEP EIGHT:
Let’s start at the left side. Click on
the Dancer1 layer, where he’s doing
a split in the air (wow!), to target it.
Then, using the Move tool, while
pressing-and-holding the Shift key,
move it to the right, closer to the
next photo. Eventually you’re going
to see the white background from
the Dancer1 layer (which is on top)
overlap on the layer below it (the
Dancer2 layer). That’s the problem
we run into when we start moving
the photos closer to each other.
STEP NINE:
The fix is simple. With the Dancer1
layer still targeted, click on the Add
Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the
Layers panel to add a layer mask.
Press D, then X to set your Fore-
ground color to black, get the Brush
tool (B), and paint with a small, soft-
edged brush on the mask to hide the
white background, so we can see his
feet from the Dancer2 photo. Since
the actual body parts don’t overlap
each other, the masking should be
pretty painless. You’ll be able to get
away with some simple and quick
brushing to hide the background,
and you shouldn’t have to get really
detailed just yet.
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STEP 10:
Go ahead and work through
the other layers to bring them
closer to each other and add layer
masks to paint away the background.
To me, this final image looks way
better than the original one. Instead
of five individual photos, it now
looks like we have five poses that
flow together.
STEP 11:
One more idea for this example
is that you could move them so
close to each other that they actu-
ally overlap. Personally, I don’t think
it works very well here. To me, each
dance move deserves its own space
and intersecting with another photo
makes it look cluttered. But, it does
have its place, so I at least want to
show you how to do it. Try moving
the Dancer1 layer over toward the
right even more, so that his foot
actually intersects with the second
pose. Because the Dancer1 layer is
above the Dancer2 layer, the white
background from the topmost layer
will start to show up again.
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STEP 12:
With the Dancer1 layer still targeted,
use the Quick Selection tool (W) to
make a selection of the dancer. Click
the Refine Edge button to open the
Refine Edge dialog. Since he con-
trasts so well with the background,
this one is simple. Set the Radius to
5 pixels to pick up any tiny details on
the edges. Set the Output To setting
to Layer Mask and click OK. Now,
you should be able to see that his
leg in the pose on the far left goes in
front of the pose that’s second from
the left. For some images, it may
work, but for something as artistic
as dance, I think it takes something
away from the photo and makes it
appear too cluttered.
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ALTERNATE IDEA #1:
Here’s an alternate idea using
something different than dance.
I totally understand that not every-
one is shooting dancers jumping
in the air. These photos were taken
in the studio, using the same setup
as the dancer photos. The subject
is just a little different, though. So,
even if you’re not photographing
dancers, but doing family portraits
instead, you can still create a
similar composite that parents
(and kids) will love.
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ALTERNATE IDEA #2:
With some pre-planning and a
couple of props bought at a local
crafts store, you’ve got another al-
ternative. It’s the same studio setup
as before and I created the MOM
and DAD versions for Mother’s Day
and Father’s Day. But, you could
just as easily use the child’s name,
or maybe a favorite sports team.
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ADDING ILLUSTRATION
I first thought of the idea for this composite from watching a Mountain Dew
commercial. It was, of course, a video of a skateboarder jumping various obstacles,
but what I really thought was cool was that there were these illustrative streaks
and shapes following him. That’s when I first got the idea of mixing a real photo
with fake shapes. Shapes we know couldn’t possibly be there in real life, but still
look cool anyway.
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EXTENDING THE BACKGROUND
My idea for this composite had more of a wide-angle view. I wanted it to look like the skateboarder had moved a good distance
into the photo with the illustrative graphics following him. In order to do that, we have to widen the background a little first.
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STEP ONE:
Open the background photo. In
this example, the background
image plays a larger part in our
final image, since it has the
skateboarder in it.
STEP TWO:
Select the Rectangular Marquee
tool from the Toolbox (or just
press M), and then, starting in
the upper-left corner of the image,
click-and-drag down and to the
right to create a rectangular se-
lection similar to the one you see
here. Then, press Com mand-J
(PC: Ctrl-J) to copy the selected
area onto its own layer.
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STEP THREE:
Grab the Move tool (V), then press-
and-hold the Shift key and drag
the new layer over toward the left
side of the image (holding the Shift
key keeps the layer aligned, so you
don’t accidentally drag it up or
down). Keep dragging it until you
can just barely see the edge of it
(as shown here).
STEP FOUR:
Since you dragged most of the
copied area outside the edge of
the image win dow, you can’t see it
anymore. So, go to Image>Reveal
All and Photo shop will automati-
cally extend the canvas to show
the copied selection.
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STEP FIVE:
At this point, we’re not concerned
with the background behind the
skater—we’re going to replace
that in the next tutorial. What we
do need to fix here is the sidewalk,
so the perspective looks right. So,
go to Edit>Transform>Skew. Then
click-and-drag the top-middle trans-
form handle to the right, until the
sidewalk matches the perspective
of the left edge of the original side-
walk. Press Return (PC: Enter) when
you’re done to lock in the change.
STEP SIX:
Click on the Add Layer Mask icon
at the bottom of the Layers panel
to create a layer mask. Then, press
B to get the Brush tool from the
Tool box and, with your Foreground
color set to black, use a medium-
sized, soft-edged brush to paint
away the duplicate background
over the skater’s arm near the top
of the image. Also, paint on the
layer mask with black to hide the
seam at the bottom on the side-
walk (I lowered my brush’s Opacity
setting in the Options Bar a bit and
gradually painted this area away).
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STEP SEVEN:
We need to extend the sidewalk just
a little more, so press Command-J
to duplicate the layer we’ve been
working on. Then, switch back to
the Move tool and move that copy
over toward the left as far as you
can, while still making sure the side-
walk looks okay and no seams are
showing. Again, don’t worry about
the wall; we’re going to cover that
up later.
STEP EIGHT:
Let’s merge everything together
now by pressing Command-Option-
Shift-E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E) to cre-
ate a new merged layer at the top of
the layer stack, while keeping all of
the layers below still there. Then,
press J to select the Spot Healing
Brush from the Toolbox, make sure
the Content-Aware radio button is
turned on up in the Options Bar,
and use a small brush to paint away
the two duplicate cast shadows on
the sidewalk (as shown here). Zoom
in and try to just paint over the ac-
tual shadow without spilling over
on the rest of the sidewalk or rocks.
Also, don’t kill yourself to make this
perfect. We’re going to darken this
area in the next tutorial, so you’ll
never really see much of the side-
walk when it’s all done. Finally, go
to File>Save and save the image
as a PSD file.
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CREATING THE COMPOSITE
The main idea for this composite is that we’ll have these cool swirl shapes following the skateboarder. Since the background
image is also our main photo for the composite, our work mostly involves making a good selection of the skateboarder and
replacing the texture behind him. Once we have that done, we’re free to add all the shapes and graphics we need (you’ll see
that I recorded a video about using the Pen tool to add these shapes when you get to that part).
STEP ONE:
Open the extended background we
created in the last tutorial (in case
you didn’t follow along with the last
tutorial, you can download the fin-
ished background from the book’s
companion website and pick up right
at this point). For starters, we don’t
need all of the layers anymore, so
go to Layer>Flatten Image, so you’re
left with just the Background layer.
STEP TWO:
Using the Quick Selection tool (W),
paint a selection on the skateboarder
and his skateboard. He’s got a lot of
tiny little details, so you’ll need to
zoom in pretty tight here and use a
small brush to paint in the details.
Press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt)
key while painting to remove any
areas that you don’t want selected.
When you’ve got the skater selected,
click on the Refine Edge button in the
Options Bar, then in the Refine Edge
dialog, set the Radius to 5 pixels, and
turn on the Smart Radius checkbox
to help pick up some of those stray
edges. When you’re done, choose
Selection from the Output To pop-
up menu at the bottom of the dialog,
so this will be output to a selection
(rather than a layer mask, which is
what we’ve been doing in most of
the book).
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STEP THREE:
Now that we’ve got our selection
in place, we’re ready to add the
textured background. We’re going
to paste this background in, but
first go to Select>Inverse to invert
the selection. We don’t want to
paste the background into the
skateboarder; we want to paste it
into everything but him.
STEP FOUR:
Open the textured background
image. (Note: I’ve mentioned
iStockphoto [www.iStockphoto
.com] before as a great resource
for design graphics and textures
for your composites. But, if you’re
really getting into compositing,
it’s good to start taking photos of
random textures. Seriously, this
opens a whole new world of pho-
tography to you, because you’ll
find backgrounds, textures, skies,
and whatever else you can think
of just about anywhere.) Once you
have the textured image open, go
to Select>All. Then go to Edit>
Copy to copy it.
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STEP FIVE:
Now, go back to the skateboarder
image. The inverted selection
you created in Step Three should
still be in place. Go to Edit>Paste
Spe cial>Paste Into. This pastes
the texture you just copied into
the selection, on its own layer with
a layer mask. You’ll need to make
this new background bigger, so
press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T)
to enter Free Transform, then press-
and-hold the Shift key, grab a cor-
ner transform handle, and drag the
image out to fit the background.
Press Return (PC: Enter) to lock in
your transformation.
STEP SIX:
The only problem now is that the
new textured background covers
part of the sidewalk and rocks, too.
So, click on the little Eye icon to
the left of the textured background
layer to hide it for a minute, then
click on the Background layer to
target it. Once again, use the Quick
Selection tool to make a selection
of the sidewalk, the rocks in the
foreground, and the rocks that lead
up to the wall. Click the Refine Edge
button in the Options Bar, and then
turn on the Smart Radius checkbox
and crank the Radius setting up to
40 pixels this time (also, my View
pop-up menu is set to On White
here). We want a wider radius, so
the edge isn’t perfect. Make sure
the Output To pop-up menu is set
to Selection and click OK.
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STEP SEVEN:
Now, we’ve got a selection of the
sidewalk and rocks, but we need
to modify the layer mask on the
textured background layer, so it
doesn’t hide them anymore. Click
where the Eye icon used to be
next to the textured layer to turn
it on again, then click on the layer
mask on that layer to target it. Go
to Edit>Fill, choose Black from the
Use pop-up menu, and click OK to
fill the selection (on the layer mask)
with black. This will hide the
textured layer covering the rocks
and sidewalk and show the layer
below. Press Command-D (PC:
Ctrl-D) to Deselect.
STEP EIGHT:
It’s time to add some graphics
to the background. So, first open
the splatter image (it’s a layered
PSD file). Get the Move tool (V),
click-and-drag the top layer (the
splatter) onto the skateboard
photo, and move it directly over
the skateboarder. At the top of the
Layers panel, change the layer’s
blend mode to Overlay, so that the
splatter blends into the background.
Press Command-T to use Free
Transform if you need to resize
the splatter.
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STEP NINE:
Of course, the splatter is covering
the skateboarder, since it’s on the
layer above him, right? So, press-
and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key
and click-and-drag the layer mask
from the textured layer to the splat-
ter layer. Holding the Option key
copies the mask from the layer
you’re dragging it from and makes
an exact duplicate on whatever
layer you put it on.
STEP 10:
Let’s draw some illustrative lines
next. Select the Pen tool from the
Toolbox (or just press P), and press
D, then X to set your Foreground
color to white. On the left side of
the Options Bar, click on the Shape
Layers icon (the first one on the left,
circled here) to set the Pen tool to
draw a Shape layer.
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STEP 11:
Click once on the left side of the
image with the Pen tool to start the
shape. Then, click-and-hold slightly
above and to the right of where you
clicked before to add another point.
Continuing to hold your mouse
button down, drag to the right to
extend the path to make it curve
upward. Next, click on the skate-
boarder’s leg and, again, with your
mouse button held down, drag to
the right to extend another anchor
point, so it looks like you’ve created
a wavy line.
If you’re like most people using
the Pen tool for the first time, you’ll
probably throw your arms up in
despair at this point. It’s one of the
harder tools to get used to, and it’s
definitely easier to watch someone
use it than to read about how to use
it. So, I’ve recorded a video about
using the Pen tool and how to make
these shapes (you can find it on the
book’s download site). Plus, the Pen
tool is a great selection tool, so I’ll
cover that, as well.
STEP 12:
Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the
last anchor point (on his leg), then
click right below it to make the
path go downward. Click-and-drag
a few times back the other way
until you’re back where you started
(again, if you’re having trouble, go
watch the video I recorded on this).
Finish it off by clicking on the ori-
ginal point (you’ll see a tiny circle
appear to the right of your cursor
when you hover over it) to close
the path.
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STEP 13:
The Shape layer automatically picks
up whatever color your Foreground
color was set to. We had set it to white,
so that we could see the shape as we
created it, but we’re going to change
it now. Click on the Add a Layer Style
icon at the bottom of the Layers panel
and choose Gradient Overlay. In the
Gradient Overlay options in the Layer
Style dialog, click on the down-facing
arrow on the right side of the Gra-
dient, and choose the Orange, Yellow,
Orange gradient from the Gradient
Picker (the second one from the left
in the second row). Then, set the
Angle to 0 and click OK.
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STEP 14:
Now, if you look at the image in the
next few steps, you’ll see I drew
some more shapes. If you already
know how to use the Pen tool, then
you’ll look at these and think, “No
sweat, I got it.” But, if you don’t
know how to use the Pen tool, then
no amount of text I write here will
help. Trust me. It’s just one of those
tools that is really difficult to read/
write about. But, when you actually
get to watch it being used, it all
starts to make sense. So, I’ve done
two things: First, like I mentioned
earlier, I recorded a video that goes
over how I created the shapes you
see in the image here. Next, I’ve
created an image with all of the
shapes already in it that you can
download from the book’s down-
load site. This way, if you want to
follow along and finish the tutorial,
you can without having to go online
and watch the video first. Sound
good? (Yes, I know you really
can’t answer me back. That’s
why I love books.)
STEP 15:
Once you have the shapes image
open, using the Move tool, drag
the Shapes layer into the composite
and position it like I have here. We’ll
need a layer mask for the next part,
so click on the Add Layer Mask icon
at the bottom of the Layers panel to
add a mask to the Shapes layer.
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STEP 16:
Press G to select the Gradient
tool from the Toolbox. Then, in the
Options Bar, click on the down-fac-
ing arrow on the right of the gradi-
ent thumbnail to open the Gradient
Picker, choose the third gradient
from the left in the top row (the
Black, White gradient), and click-
and-drag from left to right on the
layer mask. This fades the shapes
on the far-left side of the image
into the background and makes
them appear brighter as they get
closer to the skater—almost like
they’re following him. Then, press
B to get the Brush tool, press X to
set your Foreground color to black,
and use a small brush to paint
away the area where the shapes
overlap the skateboarder.
STEP 17:
After all the shapes are done,
click on the topmost layer in the
Layers panel and press Command-
Option-Shift-E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E)
to merge everything into one new
layer at the top of the layer stack.
Now, we can apply some finishing
touches on the entire image.
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STEP 18:
You’ll probably remember from
the background tutorial that the
sidewalk was copied-and-pasted
a few times to extend it. Since the
lighting is a little off (and bright
in certain parts), we’ll do some
burning to darken the whole bot-
tom of the image. Get the Burn
tool from the Toolbox (or press
Shift-O until you have it), and then
in the Options Bar, set the Range to
Midtones and the Exposure to 10%
(Exposure is similar to Opacity—the
more you paint, the more you build
up the burning effect).
STEP 19:
Use the Right (]) and Left ([) Bracket
keys on your keyboard to make
the brush roughly the size of the
sidewalk and start painting over the
bottom of the image to darken the
entire area. The more brush strokes
you add, the darker it’ll get. It’s okay
to keep the area under the skate-
boarder brighter, but make sure you
darken the left and right sides, as
well as the rocks all around.
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STEP 20:
Lastly, you know I always like
to finish things off with an edgy
sharp ening effect. There’s a free
way that I described in Chapter 8
(the concert composite) that uses
the High Pass filter, but as I also
mentioned there, I really prefer the
effect I get from Nik Software’s
Tonal Contrast filter, which is in-
cluded with the Color Efex Pro 3
Complete plug-in. So, if you have
it installed, choose Filter>Nik Soft-
ware>Color Efex Pro and, in the
Color Efex Pro window, choose
Tonal Contrast from the filters on
the left (as shown here). At the top
right of the window, set the High-
light Contrast, Midtone Contrast,
and Shadow Contrast settings all
to 30, set the Saturation to 20, and
then click OK to apply the filter.
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STEP 21:
It not only has the effect of
sharp ening the entire image,
but it adds a certain grit and
contrasty effect that makes
everything pop out at you. And,
of course, feel free to reduce
the layer’s opacity or add a layer
mask to hide areas where it’s
too intense. Here, I re duced the
layer’s Opacity and painted with
black, with a low brush opacity,
on the layer mask on parts of
the wall that became a little too
gritty as a result of the Tonal
Contrast filter.
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I added “Advanced” to the title of this chapter, because it takes a little bit of everything
we’ve done so far in the book and puts it all together. While you don’t have to read the
book in order, I do suggest that you work through a few of the other composites before
trying this one. At this point in the book, you may or may not have noticed that most of
the compositing we’ve done has been portrait-related. This means that the face, expres-
sion, or likeness of the person (or people) is the main part of the photo. Well, there’s another
area of compositing that has a more commercial, or advertising, side to it. Sure, there
are still people in the image, but the main point of the image isn’t to show off the people.
It’s usually to sell something or make some type of statement. Now, I mentioned in the in-
troduction that this book is more about portrait compositing. However, I wanted to leave
you with one last composite that will, at least, whet your appetite for something that has
more of a commercial nature to it.
ADVANCED COMMERCIAL COMPOSITE
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BRAINSTORMING FOR A COMMERCIAL COMPOSITE
Believe it or not, this is probably one of the hardest parts of this type of compositing. When the sky is the limit, it’s hard to
focus in on just one idea. And when you finally come up with that idea, executing it is just as difficult. That’s why I thought
it’d be cool to start off by showing the beginnings of the idea we’re working with here.
P
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